The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States of America for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalties thereon or therefor.
This invention relates to an aid for firefighters. More particularly, this invention is to a method and system for improved safety, performance, and comfort for a firefighter.
Currently, there is no official system used by the U.S. Navy to provide personal cooling for shipboard firefighters. Since shipboard fires are typically more intense than conventional fires at land-based facilities, harmful levels of exposure and heat-related injuries are more likely to occur.
Heat stress is a critical problem in fighting fires, in both the military and civilian sector. During a fire, firefighters typically have at least a fifteen-minute rest period between exiting and re-entering a fire. Since these firefighters may remain in full gear while on stand-by, heat-related fatigue can soon develop. Due to the critical nature of quickly controlling and extinguishing fires aboard ships, equipment that enhances the safety, productivity and comfort of the firefighters is valuable and significant.
Thus, in accordance with this inventive concept, a need has been recognized in the state of the art for a system including a suit worn by a firefighter onboard a ship that interfaces with onboard coolant sources to relieve heat stress to improve the safety, performance, and comfort of one or more firefighters.
An object of the invention is to provide a method and system for simultaneously relieving heat-related fatigue and injury of different numbers of firefighters.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method and system for relieving heat stress for firefighters connected to a common source of pressurized cooling water.
Another object of the invention is to provide method and system for simultaneously cooling firefighters connected to a pressurized coolant supply aboard a ship.
Another object is to provide a method and system coupling tube suits worn by firefighters with pressurized cooling water supplies on a ship.
Another object of the invention is to provide cooling to relieve heat-related stress and injury for firefighters and/or damage control personnel combating intense fires on a ship.
Another object of the invention is to provide a cost-effective method and system providing sufficient cooling and thermal regulation to prevent and relieve heat stress using proven commercial off-the-shelf components.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method and system including tube suits worn by firefighters and/or damage control personnel to simultaneously relieve heat stress while fighting fires and during periods of rest and stand-by.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method and system to interface tube suits worn by firefighters with a pressurized coolant source or hose being used to fight fires.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method and system to relieve heat stress of firefighters and operate within protocol for fighting fires and existing ship configurations of the U.S. Navy.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method and system using resources and infrastructure aboard a ship to reduce the need for additional equipment and cool numbers of firefighters for as long as needed.
Another object of the invention is to reduce heat stress of a firefighter in a tube suit by heat transfer between the firefighter and pressurized cooling water conducted at a second, or lower pressure.
These and other objects of the invention will become more readily apparent from the ensuing specification when taken in conjunction with the appended claims.
Accordingly, the present invention is to a method and system for relieving heat stress for firefighters. Pressurized cooling water is supplied at a first pressure from a hose connected to a fire main for fighting fires onboard a ship. A manifold block switches parts of the pressurized cooling water at the first pressure through on/off valves and reduces the pressure of the parts of the pressurized cooling water at the first pressure to a second pressure in flow regulators. The parts of the pressurized cooling water at the second pressure are fed through feeder tubes connected to the flow regulators and are conducted from the feeder tubes through tube suits each worn by a firefighter. The method and system of the invention reduces heat stress for each firefighter in each tube suit by the conducted parts of the pressurized cooling water at the second pressure.